Tokyo, 11 April 2018 — Discover how developing your leadership is an inside job, a contact sport, and a bigger game to play.

Working with several groups of emerging leaders in Japan this week, we explored how to adapt the increasingly popular DAC model—which defines leadership as a process of influence with the triple outcomes of Direction, Alignment, and Commitment—for use in leading yourself.

We did this by seeing how Direction shows up in new goals and measurable changes in your Observed World, which in Integral Theory is referred to as the exterior and objective realm of It and Its and corresponds with a 3rd person perspective. When you decide to level up to play a bigger game—to make a difference on a bigger scale—this world is where you set your goals and, in due course, measure your results.

Next, we recognized the necessary interplay with Alignment in your Personal World, which is the interior and subjective realm of I, corresponding with a 1st person perspective. Other people cannot look into your personal world directly—it is your own private space, where you cultivate your dreams, values, and beliefs—both empowering and limiting—as well as your fears. To step up and make a bigger difference in your observed world, you will need to align your personal world to empower yourself so that you can deliver on your new and bigger goals.

Finally, we explored how your work on alignment in your personal world requires a Commitment to step out and practice new behaviors in your Social World, where you maintain and expand your relationships. The social world is your interior and intersubjective WE space, corresponding with a 2nd person perspective. This is your world to build new habits, practice leadership skills, and make yourself accountable for making continuous progress, with regular feedback from peers, mentors and coaches. 

Your Three Worlds are depicted in the diagram. Leveling up your leadership with a new direction in your observed world will require that you make important investments into the alignment in your personal world, and to commitment in your social world. Think of this as enlarging all three circles at the same time.

Drawing on the metaphors used by well-known business leaders, you discover that exercising your leadership muscles is an inside job (in your personal world), as well as a contact sport (in your social world), and a bigger game (in your observed world).